It's probably not a secret for anyone that mushrooms, being a natural and very free product, do not grow anywhere. According to the exactingness of the conditions, they are many times more whimsical than plants, and therefore give them special, mushroom places. From how to find the latter - I will try to tell in this article. But for starters, I strongly recommend “smoking” the theory, which, despite its futility, is designed to help the mushroom picker analyze a specific landscape and determine its “mushroom potential” by eye.

All mushroom places are based on a kind of “three pillars”, which are the three main conditions necessary for the full existence of mushrooms:

One could also add the soil composition to the above conditions, but for most forest mushrooms it is not particularly critical. And in general - in any forest land there are almost all the necessary substances for them. However, some mushrooms prefer soils that are particularly rich in organic matter, such as mushrooms and dung beetles. I will write more about mushroom soils below - in the section "Where mushrooms grow."

So, these same “three mushroom whales” are very dependent on the type of landscape, topography and seasonal weather. These factors are also worth considering in more detail, and at the same time their influence on each other. Let's start with the first of them - the landscape.

mushroom landscapes

Mushrooms in the entire history of the development of the Earth have adapted quite well to various types of terrain, which is why they can be found not only in the forest, but also in the tundra, and even in the steppe. They also grow in swamps and on the surface of lake rafts. To begin with, let's analyze the forest area, since the lion's share of mushrooms collected by man grows in it.

mushroom forests

In terms of heat and humidity, all forests, regardless of the tree species growing in them, can be divided into three categories of mushroom places:

undergrowth

Such forests arise in old clearings or in open spaces that have been taken out of agricultural use. The main condition is the forest area and nearby mature trees, the seeds from which quickly sow the former field, and after a few years a low growth of young trees appears on it.

Also, artificial forest plantations can be attributed to small forests. You can distinguish them from self-sowing by the way the seedlings are located. In artificial plantings, they stand less often, almost the same height and are usually ordered, and in natural plantings, as a rule, all the trees stand close to each other and their height varies. Well, of course - there is no order in the arrangement of trees, but complete chaos reigns.

Usually small forests are young self-sowing pine forests, birch forests, aspen forests, or a mixture of various species. Their age is no more than 10 years, the height of the trees has not yet reached its usual value for real forests, and the undergrowth as such has not yet developed. As a rule, such forests are well warmed by the sun and evaporate moisture no less well. Therefore, on level ground there is plenty of heat here, but there is usually a minimum of moisture in the soil, which, however, does not prevent small forests from being normal mushroom places under favorable weather conditions.

woodlands

Overgrown undergrowth, or forests where the density of trees is relatively low. The undergrowth can be sparse or dense. Examples of such forests are tall birch forests or aspen forests, sufficiently illuminated by the sun.

The heat and humidity of the soil are kept here at about an average level. As mushroom places, these forests have completely taken place.

Taiga

Spruce or fir, or mixed. And indeed any forest where the density of trees is high. Only a minimal part of the sun's rays reach the earth's surface here. Therefore, twilight and coolness reign in such forests, and soil moisture reaches the maximum values ​​for the forest. The taiga is quite a mushroom place, but special “taiga” types of mushrooms grow here.

Sometimes it happens that the swamp intersects with the taiga and arises urman- another type of landscape, characterized by high humidity, and another very good mushroom place. Such forests are less dependent on precipitation, and therefore more promising in terms of mushrooms in dry years.

Summing up all the above about different forests, we can say with confidence that the most promising mushroom places are forests of the second type. Indeed, it is here that the yields of mushrooms (especially ceps) have always been high.

Open spaces

This can include all those types of landscape that do not carry trees, or have them in a meager amount. There is an abundance of solar heat here, but with moisture it happens in different ways.

1. Moss swamps or lake rafts. The wettest, most mushroomy places of all open spaces. All mushrooms need is the warmth of the sun. In terms of symbiont plants, as a rule, there is no shortage, because the swamp soil is usually permeated with the roots of various tree-like shrubs, ranging from small heathers (cranberries, blueberries, shiksha, etc.) and ending with quite mature trees, such as small birches, pines and others.
2. Tundra. There is a slight change in moisture here. However, this does not prevent this type of landscape from being a great mushroom place. Including thanks to the symbiont trees that grow here in dwarf form.
3. Dry open spaces, steppes. Mushroom places are only in favorable seasons - when a sufficient amount of precipitation falls from the sky.

It is quite obvious that the first two areas are very tempting for mushroom pickers.

Relief and mushrooms

The height and slope of the earth's surface also affect whether a particular area can be classified as a mushroom place.

So it is - the most mushroom places are usually lowlands. Mushrooms usually grow there more than in the highlands. Near the reservoirs, abundant dew falls in the morning - this has a beneficial effect on soil moisture.

mushroom weather

Summer is different. Sometimes normal - when there are many sunny days and heavy showers periodically fall (the most mushroom weather). And sometimes - cold and rainy. And it also happens that for the whole of July-August - not a drop from the sky. But the heat is abnormal and naturally "dries" everything, even the grass burns out. And once I observed a “unique” summer in general, when there didn’t seem to be much rain, but the weather was cloudy and cool all the way.

The yield of mushroom places also depends heavily on what the season will be like. In this regard, four types of summer can be distinguished:

Manifestation of weather in different mushroom places

And now - the most interesting. I have not just listed above different types of mushroom places that differ in landscape and relief. As the practice of mushroom picking shows, in different seasonal weather they manifest themselves in completely different ways. And it turns out here is a rather funny sign:

Another most amusing moment here is connected with the season, or rather, with autumn, or with how quickly mushrooms disappear with the first cold weather. As it turned out, nature has its own reservoirs of heat, which can somewhat “stretch” the mushroom season in time. These are swamps, as well as large reservoirs. It has been noticed that mushrooms can be collected near them even in October, and sometimes even from under the snow.

Where do mushrooms grow

Forests - forests, fields - fields, weather - weather, but do not forget that the nature of the soil also affects whether the place is mushroom or not.

The forest floor rich in organic matter is the best soil for mushrooms. However, the litter of the litter is different. It not only turns out to be diverse in itself, but it can also retain moisture important for mushrooms in different ways. And well-rotted soil is also a source of heat, because, as you know, the decay of any organic residues releases it in sufficient quantities (recall the “smoking” heaps of manure or sawdust in collective gardens).

fallen needles

Its upper layer is quite well blown, so most often it is dry. In terms of nutrients, so-so. The rotted needles are located deeper - that's where things with moisture and useful substances are much better. Bacteria have worked hard here, and mushroom mycelium is usually located here. Of the mushrooms on the fallen needles, russula and other milk mushrooms are most often found, but there are also ceps, mossiness mushrooms, etc.

fallen leaves

Better retains moisture than the previous point, and - apparently - richer in nutrients. There are noticeably more mushrooms here, moreover, their “range” is clearly more diverse.

Well, of course - such a litter does not arise on its own, but accompanies deciduous trees, all of which are symbionts for mycorrhizal fungi. Such as whites, butterflies, milk mushrooms and others.

Moss sites

It has been noticed that where moss has grown in order on the ground (sphagnum there, or something else) - mushrooms appear many times more readily than on ordinary soil. This can be clearly seen when collecting camelinas, especially in the undergrowth. This is explained quite simply: moss, being a lower plant, and therefore - moisture-loving, tries to take care of the conservation of water in the place of its growth. His jackets are organized like dense pillows, well permeable to water from above, but, alas, they don’t let it through very well back. In addition, moss is a good heat insulator - it was not for nothing that in the old days it was placed between logs in log cabins of houses, or even covered the roof with it.

From this we can also conclude that moss is one of the external signs of mushroom places.

Grass

It means "natural variant of the lawn." In such a well-developed grass, mushrooms also grow, but they are not particularly fond of it. Perhaps - because of the dense turf through which throwing fruiting bodies - one continuous hassle. Or maybe the grass somehow competes with mushrooms, “taking away” moisture, nutrients or space from them? But this is not so important. The main thing is that when picking mushrooms you always notice that they rarely come across in dense grass, with the exception of umbrellas and champignons. But if the grass is sparse, mushrooms often come across in it.

However, if the grass does not grow haphazardly, but in periodically occurring bumps, you should know that this is a clear sign of a mushroom place, and in addition to everything, one of the signs for porcini mushrooms.

Dense herbs, weeds

As a rule, this vegetation occurs in old wastelands, or in low-lying meadows well fed by water. Sometimes there are such thickets that even walking through them is difficult. But they retain moisture very well - at the very roots, even the dew does not evaporate all day long. For mushrooms, this is the promised land. Only now solid grebes grow here, or those species that are not usually collected in our area (all sorts of umbrellas, meadow mushrooms, etc.). It turns out that this type of landscape is not included in mushroom places.

Where to collect mushrooms

Photo 2 Here is such a forest in a warm, rainy season, gives a good harvest of oil in the summer and an equally good harvest of mushrooms in the fall.

Now - it's time to talk about the tactics of finding mushroom places. This tactic is most often used in forests, because this is the most “difficult” landscape in terms of gathering. In other places where mushrooms grow, the search is greatly simplified.

The first thing a picker in the forest should pay attention to is the local (shallow) relief, as well as the density of the trees. On small hills, like hillocks, hillocks and "ridges", the average temperature is always a little higher than in the lowlands. Clearings, “windows”, or places where trees grow less densely, or filled with young undergrowth, are more open to the sun, and therefore also warm up better than the rest of the forest. It is here - on elevations and small clearings - that "witch circles" and other mushroom clusters most often come across.

Photo 3. A typical mushroom site: a loose birch forest with a well-developed rowan undergrowth, with moss patches and a thin grass cover consisting of meadow grasses and stone berries, as well as with slight relief differences (hills, hollows) and clearings. A river flows a few meters from this place. Types of mushrooms growing in such a forest: chanterelle, milk mushroom, honey agaric, boletus, white mushroom.

If there are large clearings in the forest, overgrown with grass, then the mushrooms are concentrated along their edges, especially along the northern edges. The same is observed in the clearings. If the latter are oriented from south to north, then mushrooms simply form plantations along the border of the forest and the cut down place. If the clearing is overgrown with undergrowth, mushrooms will be over the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthickets, since here they have “both a house and a table” (these places not only warm up well, but also contain symbiont trees, and also retain moisture better). On clearings oriented in latitude (from east to west), as a rule, mushrooms adore the northern edge, since it is better warmed by the sun. In addition to glades, mushrooms can be concentrated in decent quantities in narrow forest belts among vast fields, as well as along the borders between fields and forests.

Photo 4. Dense mixed forest (birch, spruce and fir), or rather, its outskirts, bordering on a huge mowing. Nice mushroom place. Growing mushrooms: camelina, milk mushroom, porcini mushroom, honey agaric, volnushka.

Rocky outcrops in the middle of the forest form partly open, well-heated spaces. In addition, a stone under the forest soil acts as a kind of "bowl" for rainwater, holding it for a while. Mushrooms can concentrate in such places, but not always. The main indicator of mushroom places is moss. If the foot of the stone is covered with it, then everything is in order with mushrooms here.

Photo 5. Young pine forest near the rocky outcrop. Moss and ferns grow on the stones, which indicates good humidity, which means that we have a completely mushroomy place in front of us.

Clearings can turn out to be very promising mushroom places. Especially if the timber was demolished and the undergrowth was left alone. Clearings warm up very well and contain in their soil a long-established fungal biocenosis, but in turn they require more moisture. This should be taken into account in seasons when the amount of precipitation is less than normal. The situation is almost the same with the places where the fallen has walked through the forest. But it is most often useless to look for mushrooms on fresh burned areas, since the upper horizon of the soil - in which the mycelium lives - usually burns out.

Such a tendency has also been noticed - in more or less open places (for example, in low forests), small lowlands may turn out to be places of concentration of mushrooms. So, once when collecting oil in one such place, a small (half a meter deep) ravine lined with stones and moss turned out to be very promising. This ravine was the bed of a forest stream that dries up every year, but apparently it contained a little more moisture than the flat terrain bordering it.

In dry but hot seasons, areas near springs, forest rivers and streams, lowlands with marshes that have not yet dried up, coastal forests of lakes and reservoirs remain mushroom places. In short - all those places where there are sources of moisture. They work especially well on cool nights - when dew falls. When looking for such places, pay attention to the moss growing on the ground, stumps and at the roots of trees. It is the prime indicator of moisture.

Now a few words about places where mushrooms do not exist, or if they come across, then in a meager amount, unworthy of the mushroom picker's attention.

Firstly, there is no point in looking for mushrooms in places frequently visited by people, because everything there has been trampled down and cut off long before you and me. Distinguishing such places from normal ones is easier than a steamed turnip: the small forest vegetation here is broken and flattened, it is clear that a “herd of elephants” ran through the day before. Also noticeable are "stumps" from mushrooms, or cut worm hats lying on the ground. Garbage like cigarette butts, crumpled packs of cigarettes, some other rubbish also indicate frequent visits to these places. This is mainly observed in forests bordering settlements or busy roads.

Photo 6. A typical forest, often visited by people (located near a big city). The grass cover is trampled down, the undergrowth is stunted, paths and places for felling trees are visible. In the middle of the forest all sorts of rubbish is lying around. Now it is useless to look for mushrooms here, but in the past this forest must have been a good place for mushrooms.

The next competitors of the collector are wild boars. In forests densely populated by these animals, picking mushrooms can be not only unpromising (because mushrooms find and devour these beasts many times faster than humans!), But even dangerous. I know a case when one of my acquaintances a mushroom picker came across a whole flock of wild boars with cubs in the forest. From sin away, he left the forest with lightning speed.

Photo. 7. Wild boars are serious competitors of the mushroom picker. They love to raid mushroom places. Mushroom eaters in action.

Usually wild boars betray their presence with characteristic footprints on the ground (it is clear that they were trampling and rummaging), heaps of droppings, as well as shabby, mud-stained trees. Well, of course - grunting and crackling branches. However, unlike humans, they never litter. Despite the fact that they are the most real pigs.

Important: where you can not collect mushrooms

I definitely do not advise you to pick mushrooms within a radius of 30 kilometers from large industrial enterprises that pollute the environment with their emissions. For in mushrooms in these territories the entire periodic table accumulates (an example of this is the legendary mushroom ""). I can say the same about places along roads, especially busy ones, and about forests near large landfills.

Photo 8. Beautiful, coniferous forest, which is a good place for mushrooms. But it is located in the pollution zone of a large metallurgical enterprise.

Picking mushrooms in such ecologically unfavorable areas is only possible according to the principle “cut it off - throw it away”, or for scientific purposes - for a herbarium there, etc. Well, also for collecting spore powder - although it contains all sorts of chemical rubbish, but being "sown" in an ecologically clean place - will produce normal, safe mushrooms.

But eating mushrooms from contaminated areas is an extremely dangerous business. It happens that harmful substances accumulate in the fruiting body in such quantities that the mushroom, being edible and harmless according to the passport, becomes naturally poisonous, and after eating it immediately causes symptoms of such a normal poisoning. Keep this in mind when picking mushrooms, so as not to inadvertently rumble into the hospital or not to have health problems in the future.

conclusions

Photo 9. Mushroom place found.

It turns out that the most mushroom places can only be moist, well-warmed by the sun areas, with an abundance of symbiont trees and organic-rich soil. Moreover, these places should be as less dependent on weather conditions as possible.

Finding them is a difficult task, however, seasoned mushroom pickers develop a “scent” for these places, but in fact this phenomenon is of a purely subconscious nature. The human brain, being a virtuoso analyzer of situations, over the years of experience reveals patterns and develops a specific algorithm for detecting mushroom places by external, seemingly uninformative signs, and, in the end, gives its unsuspecting owner ready-made forecasts. He, perceiving this as a kind of "sixth sense" - unmistakably finds huge accumulations of mushrooms. In my lifetime, I not only heard stories about such people, but also knew them personally. And in all cases, they were not just avid mushroom pickers, they went mushroom picking from childhood. Some of them were born in the taiga villages of our region - their sense of searching for mushrooms was so developed that they simply aroused genuine admiration.

Hence the main conclusion - if you want to always be with mushrooms - look for them. And the more often you do this, the faster you will understand where the most mushroom places are. And if you don’t even understand, your subconscious mind will do it for you.